“Made in Stuttgart, Perfected in Parkesburg”

RS-Werks - which I’ve had the pleasure to tour - is a Porsche restoration and customization shop in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania. Can we begin with you talking about your background and what inspired your interest in air-cooled Porsches and in launching and building RS-Werks?

MM. I started in the steel tubular and metals business, initially in Scotland, then I relocated to Texas to spearhead the US expansion. In 2017, private equity bought me out, a life changing event.

My Porsche journey began as a child, my grandfather was a pure Porsche enthusiast, and would take me out for drives, sharing the back seat with his beloved Staffordshire bull terrier. As soon as finance allowed, I purchased a second-hand Boxster in 99 but it was not until 10 years later I had the courage to join the Air-cooled Porsche world. It was a transformative experience, and I embarked upon a deep love affair with air cooled Porsches. Driving events fuelled my passion and sparked a love for upgrading and modifying air cooled Porsche 911’s.

Initially, I was a client of RS-Werks and in 2018 I became a principal owner, it was much smaller back then. It was difficult to find a Porsche specialist to create my dream Porsche, so I was delighted to find RS-Werks.

Finding a reliable subcontractor to execute our high-quality requirements was incredibly difficult, so I decided to invest in a purpose-build facility, with the best specialty equipment and staff to restore and build custom air-cooled Porsches.

RS-Werks is unique I think in that virtually every stage of the restoration and customization process is under one roof and managed by your team in PA. But there are other Porsche “restomod” shops including some nearby in NJ and NY, not to mention several in California. Do you think about these other shops and ways to distinguish or differentiate RS-Werks?

MM. We’re client driven and have structured RS-Werks to best meet their needs. We’re privileged to be part of a vibrant community of Restoration and modification shops, each has varying approaches and niches (or micro niche?, we’re a niche of a niche, of a niche!).

Our biggest differentiator is that we virtually have all processes under one roof, I can only think of 2 similar groups in the USA.

We're very proud of our commitment to executing all our body modifications (when possible) in steel, we have an insanely talented group of metal work artisans. When possible, we lean into building period correct cars using manual techniques of the past for our metalwork.

Less so with our power plants with a mix of old and new depending upon the client’s mission for the car.

And we’re not against installing some creature comforts to make the cars more usable (hidden radios, air conditioning). Air conditioning is a popular option for folks like me based in Texas.

Finally, our willingness to build completely custom commissions sets us apart from most, we have projects where every body panel and bumper has been custom built in metal, a true one of one.

RS-Werks is a unique and in many respects a “do it all” restoration shop for air-cooled 911s. Is it difficult to find the staff needed to do the job and to appreciate the history and passion of these vintage Porsches? In many respects these are real artisans and not pure mechanics, welders, etc. Do you train staff in-house?

ND. As with any industry & company we do rely on talented staff. We restore / rebuild / rectify rather than replace parts – so we look for employees who are multi-talented artisans rather than the dealer technicians. This is not just a job to our staff, there is drive, passion & enthusiasm which allows the staff to produce an outstanding result. We have a range of ages and skills but most important is we are a team with each team member adding value to each commission.